this is a contest to see who can make the most retardedly awesome map/physics/lua. in order to qualify, your idea must be whack. zany map design, goofy physics, and WTF premise are all strongly encouraged.

specific rules:

1) this is a contest for "crazy awesome", not just vanilla "awesome". a really good idea that is very traditional will not win. your entry must be crazy in one way or another.

2) non-traditional gameplay/flow is encouraged (ie: potato anus soccer). if you think you have a good idea that doesn't use any weapons or something, go for it.

3) any combination of poly tricks/textures/mml/lua/physics/whatever are allowed, however entries will be weighted inversely to how much they include. someone that writes an entirely new game in a 25mb lua file will be disadvantaged against a map with a goofy physics model. something simple and well executed is better.

4) your entry must be playable by anyone willing to give it a serious shot. the results must reasonably be able to be construed as entertainment- don't just make something stupid where there's nothing to do.

4a) an entry that is just random will not rank highly. don't make a map that's a ginormous single room with 100 pfhor stuck to the ceiling, or replace all the weapon sprites with pictures of goldfish.

4b) a map that is simply ugly will not rank highly, unless it manages to be hilariously OMGWTFBBQ ugly.

5) maps/lua can be either solo or net, although net is strongly encouraged.

6) map files must contain a single level. no netmap packs, no solo scenarios.

7) people are allowed to submit as many entries as they want (but if you rapid fire submit a whole crapload of lame things I'll probably start ignoring you).

8) there are no hard limits on poly count, area, #players, or file size... although your entry will be disadvantaged if it only functions on a 3ghz i7 or something.

to reiterate, emphasis here is on creating something that is wacky but still basically playable by people with a little patience. this will be interpreted on a "good faith" basis.

edit: my original wording was a little biased here- your entry doesn't actually have to have a map file, it can be just a standalone physics model or lua script. hopper pointed out the joust lua script, which is a good example of what I'm looking for. I've reworded a couple things accordingly.

to get this off the ground, here's an example netmap I just whipped up. I believe it's functional but obviously haven't actually tested it with other human players.

notes:

- the teleporters are not random. keep track of what items appear where on the ground, and the physical relationship between the location of the teleporter and the surrounding landmarks. there is a method to the madness- the earlier you get a handle on it the more you'll gain the advantage.

- before someone tries to bitch at me: you cannot teleport forever. no matter where you land eventually you'll end up high or in the pit. technically you can respawn if you die on a teleporter by hitting action a bunch of times, but I know some people have issues with that.

edit: new version of the map. accidentally uploaded an old copy with no sounds.

I know I'll never find time for this, but if I did, my entry would be an Aleph One port of The Stanley Parable ( playthrough on YouTube). It'd be solo only, but I don't think you could call it traditional.

this very definitely falls in the camp of normal awesome, not retarded awesome. it's the sort of thing I was referring to with the "25mb lua" comment. it's a serious effort at making a good game, but I'm looking for something ridiculous.

that having been said, I might look into downloading that.... have to decide if putting up with steam is worth it though.

I've thought more than once about trying to make a whack-a-mole map with some kind of crushing platform mechanic, but it's not easy to do because ultimately WaM is a one-player game. ideally the map would allow for any individual player to have a chance at grabbing the whacker position and treating the other players as moles, but I've never been able to figure out how to do that in a way that's both evenly fair and that doesn't require the participants to agree to stuff ahead of time. even if both those could be solved, it still doesn't address the issue that you'd need at least 6 players in the game for it to be enjoyable.

quartz wrote:I've thought more than once about trying to make a whack-a-mole map with some kind of crushing platform mechanic, but it's not easy to do because ultimately WaM is a one-player game. ideally the map would allow for any individual player to have a chance at grabbing the whacker position and treating the other players as moles

Nah, just have everyone be moles, and the computer be the whacker. With Lua, you could easily adjust the whacker's "reflexes" as time goes on, making it harder to dodge the crushing platforms. To give some direction to all the running around, spawn some bonus items for points, and maybe invisibility to keep the AI whacker from seeing you. Or you could be mean, and have a negative bonus item that gives the whacker a second hammer (letting Lua activate two platforms at a time).

Maybe next year I'll have time for a "no weapons needed" contest. Even the main games have their share of jumping puzzles or obstacle courses, why not see if someone can make one that doesn't suck.

Back on this topic, abusing the gravity setting for walking vs. running physics might be a good start toward a "retarded awesome" map, but I haven't figured out what geometry would put it to good use.

Hopper wrote:Nah, just have everyone be moles, and the computer be the whacker.

I suppose that's an idea... but I was under the impression that most people want to play either with each other cooperatively, or against each other competitively. do "us vs the machine" games have an audience?

also, having everyone be moles and the machine be the whacker is almost like nega-WaM.

Hopper wrote:Maybe next year I'll have time for a "no weapons needed" contest. Even the main games have their share of jumping puzzles or obstacle courses, why not see if someone can make one that doesn't suck.

I'm not sure "team jumping puzzle" has a good ring to it though

Hopper wrote:Back on this topic, abusing the gravity setting for walking vs. running physics might be a good start toward a "retarded awesome" map, but I haven't figured out what geometry would put it to good use.

that reminds me back when I was in school I made a no-gravity map where everyone had to "swim" via a flamethrower with negative kick. it wasn't that popular a map tbh, mainly because most things in marathon (explosions/stairs/etc) push people up and everyone ended up stuck on the ceiling for most of the game. nowadays you could use a full-map liquid and use mml to turn off the tint/sounds/o2 drain. it'd probably still be too 'normal' unless something else was wacky though.

although that gives me an idea for a synchronized-swimming map or something. that would qualify as sufficiently retarded.

Interesting Gameplay: have the normal fire move you forward but drain your primary ammo and replenish a secondary ammo. The alt fire replenishs your primary ammo, removes the secondary ammo and still moves you forward. You could get a nice rhythm going on with button presses.

Okay, sure. If I know the UI half can be done, it'll be motivation to script up the level-info data. In another year or seven it'll be ready. The worst that happens is I don't do it, and we're no worse off than we are now.

So, attached are 84 Suicide levels from my INBOX circa 2003.

Heh, I ragequit after I found the earlier collection of 49, which wasn't complete enough.

quartz wrote:do "us vs the machine" games have an audience?

Well, Nega-WaM would still have a competitive aspect, as you could compete for the fewest deaths, or maybe base it on how many times you attract the hammer without getting squashed. Or, add weapons back in -- your fellow moles can't attract the hammer while they're dead! Kinda like KotH, except the Hill tries to kill you. Treellama, somebody must have done that trick before, right?

that reminds me back when I was in school I made a no-gravity map where everyone had to "swim" via a flamethrower with negative kick.

Yep, that's what I was thinking, with the addition of standard gravity (either via a key or a timer) to get you back down and moving around every so often. I'd have suggested negative gravity like G-Switch, but I don't see how to make it work nicely in the engine. It might be a nice gimmick to "float" over lava pits and run again on the other side, but I couldn't come up with anything nearly as wacky or awesome as Joust already is.

mods like that are exactly the sort of thing I'm trying to achieve with this contest. I just realized I worded the original rules to suggest I'm only looking for maps, but that's not true. edited accordingly.

It is a net level with a bunch of force fields constricting the direction of traffic, and every 24 seconds the direction of the fields switch. Sequences of strobed lights indicate the direction the fields are flowing, and there are various other lighting indications to tell the player which way to go. The liquid used for the force fields makes an arrow shape indicating direction, so the overhead map can also be used to see which direction they flow.

In any given section of the map a player is guaranteed to have at least one exit (excluding the way they entered) at all times. The only way to reach a dead end is to move against the strobe lighting. When the force fields switch direction they are inactive for 4 seconds, which is enough time for the player to get through if they were already headed toward one when they switched.

I set the strength of the fields about at the minimum to prevent the player from making it through in the wrong direction. It is possible for the player to get through at the current settings, but I am hesitant to increase it any more as the fields already add a significant amount of acceleration to the player. I am unable to get through going the wrong direction consistently, so it is good enough for me.

The map includes mml to make the lava used for the force fields non-damaging and not deplete any oxygen. I was able to implement the switching strobe lighting effect using a series of platforms, so lua was not necessary.